Relishing La Vallee before we head south

Bonjour

Nous espérons vous êtes bien (we hope you are well).

We are heading south this Friday so I thought I would send over a few photos from our last couple of weeks. We were a bit unlucky with Spring here, weather wise, but we've been lucky with Autumn, the weather has been great. I woke up the other day to see this stunning sun rise....

Below is a photo of our little hamlet taken from the ridge that you can see in the photo above. Our house is pretty much in the middle of that group of houses you can see...

We had a lovely dinner with our French friends, Jean-Marc and Fabiennne last Saturday. Guess what we had, yes, duck! Fabienne had cooked these duck legs in cepes (mushrooms) and red wine for about five hours, ahhhh, delicieux!

 

Before dinner Jean-Marc and Fabienne took us all for a drive to see this huge natural spring and following that we went for a walk in the woods.

This isn't the most flattering photo of Ziggy and Kirerly, but I just had to take it. It's them heading over to the owners other farm where they'll spend the winter, mostly in doors I imagine. They're been a constant source of companionship for us here at La Vallee..

 

We recently had dinner at our friends place, Denis and Celine. Denis is actually a trained chef, and boy does it show, highlights included the home made foie gras as an entrée served with a mildly sweet white wine, and the slightly baked rock oysters with leek and cream, it was like being at a Michelin-starred restaurant!

Here we are, post night fall, heading back from closing up Toni and Denis' chickens while they are away on holidays, the kids love it and the fresh eggs are a treat.

Below is Beth, Jean-Marc and Fabienne around our place for dinner, guess what I cooked, yep, you guessed it, duck. These were the huge duck breasts marinated in cepes, our favourite.

Every now and then you see reminders of the second world war. We had a picnic in a little park, one day when we out exploring some high country east of here, and I noticed this memorial stone on the park's edge. It was in a small village. The plaque reads "Ici le 11 Mai 1944 est tombe Emile Gauzin assassin par les Allemande", and in English this basically reads "Here on the 11th of May, 1944 Emile Gauzin was assasinated by the Germans"

 

Later that day we visited a beautiful old church built into the side of a cliff with a stream cascading below. Here is Jane and the kids at this beautiful spot... 

 

 

I recently met Sophie's best friend at school, Rachel, pictured below. It was so cute, she had picked some flowers from her garden to give to Sophie.

The other day we went for a walk and came across these sheep. I think they thought we had arrived to give them a feed.

I took this photo of Sophie and I in front of this magnificent old deserted chateau in a village called Aynac. Daughter and Dad bonding time, love it..

 

I thought I would include a few photos of some of the sights I see on my morning walks. This at the bottom of the gully behind our house...

 

This is heading back up towards the house..

This is next to the local spring, special spot..

This is what remains of an old ruined house half way up the hill...

 

Nearly home. This is looking across the valley towards Souillac. You can see Tony and Denis' house on the right and the clouds sitting in the valley to the left. You can see a huge mound of rocks just below Tony and Denis' house. This is where, many years ago, the famers put the rocks that they collected, one by one, from all over the surrounding paddock, in order to make the land more productive.

Here is Sophie on her last day of school in Payrac, with the head mistress Natalie. She asked that we stay in touch with the school so the kids can see how Sophie is going. Jane was up till 1am that morning putting together a little bag of lollies for each kid (29 of them) along with a little toy koala. Needless to say that was a big hit with kids.

 

Sophie brought home her exercise pad with some of the semester's activities in them. I thought this was really interesting. Here they have to draw lines connecting two of the identical type cepes (mushrooms), complete with the name of each variety. It's a good example of how food and nature are so important to the French.   

Below shows an impressive Renaissance church, built from 1540 to 1550, in a village called Assier about 30 minutes drive from here..

Going shopping with the kids is always a challenge, that's along with trying to interpret all the food labels. One way to tackle it is to borrow one or two of these car trolleys, a good distraction....

Here is Connor having a good look at the chickens at the back of the small farm here. The two geese, a male and female, you can see in there as well, are literally mates for life.

Below is a photo of the Château de Rastignac about an hours north west of here. It's really interesting to us for two main reasons, one, we were offered to rent part of the renovated quarters immediately behind the chateau. We could have been living there instead of here at La Vallee, and secondly the link between it and the White House in the States. Thomas Jefferson , during his tour of Bordeaux in 1789, viewed the chateau architectural drawings and when he returned to the US he shared what he had seen with the architect who designed the White House extensions, that's how the story goes anyway. Comparing the two as shown below, I think there is something in it. What's also interesting is in 1944, the fleeing Nazi SS forces attempted to burn down Château de Rastignac in retribution against the French Resistance. Using phospherus as an accelerant, the fire burned for five days, and all that was left was the external walls.

Here is a photo of the White House for a comparison....

And finally when we leave here this Friday we have a night on the way down at Roquefort, where all that famous Roquefort cheese, sold throughout the world, comes from. I'm quite excited about this as I've decided it's my favourite French cheese, not an easy choice I can tell you. Below is a photo of Connor, on his own accord, reaching across to slice himself a bit of Roquefort cheese. This love of Roquefort obviously runs in the family.  

A bientot et tout le meilleur (speak soon and all the best)

Jane, Sophie, Connor, et moi

 

 

 

 

It's hunting season

Bonjour!

Hope all is well. It's starting to really cool off here. The forecast for today is a maximum of 14C and an overnight minimum of 2C. We have had much warmer days recently, like it reached 28C last week, it just shows the great variability in the climate here.

The hunters are out. It's hunting season and we see them quite regularly. They have to wear flouro vests these days due to the fact that so many accidental shootings were occurring. On my morning walks, especially when it's foggy, I have been concerned that in not wearing a flouro vest one of them may mistake me for a deer and blow me away. One old guy the other day was just sitting in a picnic chair on the edge of the hamlet, gun on his lap, waiting for a deer to appear. The other day when visiting a little village with mum and dad, we came across this friendly hunter who was more than happy to show us a bird he had shot that morning along with some mushrooms he had found.

It never ceases to amaze us how narrow many of the country roads are around here, particularly as many of the tourists drive around in these massive campervans. Below is a classic example. It's a bridge not that far from us, it looks like a suspension bridge for people, not cars, right, ....... wrong, it's for cars, the first time I drove over it, it was definitely a lung full of air and hold it experience. It's the entry and exit that's so, so tight. Look closely and you can see where numerous cars in the past have had some paint removed from their side panels.

 

Below is another example of how narrow the roads can get. This time I got caught! We love our TOM TOM, it takes us on really interesting back roads all the time, because that's the fastest route from A to B. Problem is our mate TOM doesn't take into account how wide the roads are. Below was where we ended up when TOM was guiding us to our hotel in Lourdes when mum, dad, and I visited the other day. I realized I was finally caught when I heard my side mirror scrap up against the wall! Ouch! It look us about half an hour to back out of there, luckily Dad was able to guide me out.

 

Lourdes is a really interesting place. For mum it was extra special as she went to a catholic boarding school for the deaf from an early age and the story of Saint Bernadette and Lourdes was very well known.

 

As a reminder , as per Wikipedia ..... "On 11 February 1858, a 14-year-old local girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed a beautiful lady appeared to her in the remote Grotto of Massabielle. The lady later identified herself as "the Immaculate Conception" and the faithful believe her to be the Blessed Virgin Mary. The lady appeared 18 times, and by 1859 thousands of pilgrims were visiting Lourdes".... "Today Lourdes has a population of around 15,000 but is able to take in some 5,000,000 pilgrims and tourists every season".

 

I couldn't help but feel religious, the fact that I had gone to catholic schools probably helped too.  Below is to the side of the Grotto and shows a line of people with some type of disability hoping for a miracle.

 



Below is another photo of the Grotto. You can see a statue of Mary just above the Grotto, showing I suspect where Mary appeared, ....approximately that is.  The atmosphere at that spot was pretty amazing, pretty special, you could just sense all the people around you concentrating on their prayers.

 

At one point during the day mum mentioned that we should be anointed with holy water while we were there. I did not have a clue what this entailed but it sounded interesting. Well, before you knew it Dad and I were separated from Mum, told to take off our cloths and wait in a room sitting on a bench in nothing but our underwear. I looked at Dad next to me and thought, "I'm sorry Dad, I really did not expect this". Dad wasn't up for it originally because in his words " I am not catholic", but they managed to talk him into it, because, in their words " it does not matter that you are not catholic". A white rob was tied around our waste, and a guy on each arm threw us backwards into a bath full of cold water and then we were asked to say a few prayers. Mum was subject to the same procedure in the women's section. Well needless to say, we were very surprised by all this. But hey, it was a hot day and it was refreshing. We had a good laugh about it, in a respectful way that is. A truly memorable experience.

 

Below is mum and I lighting a candle for family and friends back home...

The next day we had a fantastic day taking a leisurely drive through the country side all the way back home. Late in the day we arrived at Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, one of the most beautiful villages you'll find in France. As shown below, it sits at the top of a cliff about 100 meters above the River Lot. It's a pretty much an untouched medieval town.

Earlier on in the day we visited the ancient town of Auch. It's well known for its St Mary Cathedral. It has these magnificent stained glass windows constructed by a guy called Arnuad de Moles in the 15th century. This one below was my favourite and shows Adam and Eve and the serpent between them.

Here is Mum and Dad next to the statue of Charles d'Artagnan who was born nearby and ended up serving King Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard in the 1600's. He was the real life figure that one of the famous Three Musketeers was based on.

 

Later that same day we visited Moissac and its amazing 7th century Abbey. Below is a photo of mum inside the World Heritage listed cloister of the Abbey. 

 

 

There was a museum next to the cloister that had this copy of a drawing done in 1832 of pretty much the same spot that Mum was standing ..... 

 

 

Here is a photo of Dad and Connor having some fun in the tree house back here at La Vallee.... 

 

 

And then it was Mum's turn and Sophie joined in.....

 

Here is a picture of the inside of Sophie's ecole maternelle (preschool), she's somewhere behind the teacher... 

Mum and dad had come to visit which Sophie was very happy about. Connor loves to visit, he can't wait till he's old enough..

Below is a photo of some of Sophie's artwork, in the centre, some natural talent shining through I'm sure.... I think Inga's drawing, below Sophie's, is a picture of her mum and dad as well, but her dad needs to put some clothes on.

One rainy day we took mum and dad to see some nearby caves called "Grottes de Cougnac". They have the some really old prehistoric cave paintings dating back 25000 years! Before the drawings were discovered the people that lived in a big old house above were using the caves as a wine cellar! Below is a cute photo of Soph and Connor waiting to go into the caves..

 

Here we are in the caves just before we saw the paintings of the animals including bison, mammoth. We were not allowed to take photos of the drawings.

 

 

 Mum and Soph walking down the main street of Gourdon, the local town where we do all our shopping....

 

Dad took this nice photo of our house here in the hamlet. We love this place and we are going to miss it. Within the month the plan is to move down to Provence for a while. In the shot below, if you look at the door, right in the middle, with the light blue shutters, that's where our kitchen is and the dormer window in the roof above and to the left is where our bedroom is.

Mum is a classic, she loves brothers, religious ones that is, and sisters (nuns). Just about every time we saw one she would say hi, asked them which congregation they belonged to, and then ask for a photo with them. I love that about Mum, talk about confidence. Here she is with a brother she met at the legendary Rocomadour. I've been there about six times and I don't think I would ever get sick of it.

Dad ad I had an awesome day visiting the Dordogne Valley, one of the most beautiful areas in France. Here is dad looking out from above the village of Le Roque-Gageac.

And here is Dad looking out from my favourite view in the Dordogne, from the base of Beynac Castle. You can just see Castelnaud Castle across the valley, up on the hill on the right hand side. During the Hundred Years War (1337 to 1453) it changed hands over six times!  

 

Sophie loves to dress up, particularly in a wedding dress and then Jane acts as the Priest and marries off Soph to Connor, "just for pretend" as Soph would say. Here she is looking very cute in one of her wedding outfits (my cold weather vest is the dress), all designed by one Sophie Scott. 

 One warm day we headed down to the Dordogne river for a swim, there's dad waving hello with Connor.

Mum, dad, and I in Sarlat on market day. That impressive bit of architecture behind us is probably about 500 years old.

My mate, Connor, and I just hanging out and enjoying some lovely morning sunshine on the patio.

 

 

We had our friends Denis and Celine and their two kids, Gabriel and Romane, around for dinner with mum and dad the other night. Celine and her family used to live in La Vallee, our house here, before the big renovation. Her family goes back generations in our little hamlet.

The ladies love Connor. Below is a fine example. Here is Romane looking for a kiss with Connor. Lovely French girl and all but I think Connor just wasn't feeling right about it, I think he wanted to talk some more before taking it to the kissing stage.

Overall, Connor is pretty happy with himself, he's just kind of clicked in with the French way of life.....

 

I took mum and dad to this beautiful little spot near Lacave. Dad took this fine shot, you can just see mum waving at the camera from the left side of this old ruined bridge. There is a little church up on the cliff above.

 

Below is a photo of mum and I in front of Carennac, another favourite village of ours not that far from here. Carennac is classified as one of " the most beautiful villages of France" along with Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and147 others. 

Connor has been helping me out with odd jobs around the house, including giving Black Betty a well earned wash. You can see the sheep in the background, we love that their back in the neighbouring paddock.

 

This is Jane and Connor at a park we frequent on the other side of Gourdon. Knowing that we're heading off soon has made us relish and appreciate even more the local area and its many gems, including this park.

 

Here is Dad holding up a wall of a house in Martel. No, not really, but its worth pointing out the interesting "leaning out" of some of these medieval houses, as shown below.

One day, mum and dad looked after the kids while Jane and I headed out to a local restaurant which had a "mique" lunch day, a specialty of the Dordogne region. It was a massive four course meal including some lovely tender pork and of course the mique, which you can see on the right hand side of Jane's plate. It's like a huge savoury bread and butter pudding, "délicieux" as they say in French. 

Jane and I were celebrated six years since we first met, cheers to that and a big thank you to my lovely wife for putting up with me for that long! This also pretty much coincided with us reaching six months in France, wow. We thank our lucky stars for each day as it passes. When asked, we say to the locals we're on a "grandes vacances" which basically means a big, big holiday.

 

It has been awesome watching the kids grow up. Sophie and Connor have become good play mates too, well most of the time, the photo below shows them hand in hand walking down the main street of Rocomadour. That day a shopkeeper saw us and gave Connor back his snuggle blanket. Connor dropped it somewhere there about three weeks prior and we thought we'd never see it again. Connor just wasn't the same without his "ruggy". She had washed it and must have just kept it and hoped to see us again. How cool is that.

A big thank you to mum and dad for visiting us, we had a great time with them, ate plenty of duck with them, saw plenty of sights with them, and most importantly we got to just hang out with them, in this beautiful part of the world.

Cheers to the happy couple! 

Tout le meilleur et bonne santé

(all the best and good health)

Jane, Soph, Connor, et moi